Tower cranes are being utilized often for big building construction projects. They are necessary for the heavy lifting and positioning of materials and machinery. Tower cranes provide a different design that offers a lot of advantages over more conventional cranes. These advantages consist of: quiet electrical operation, higher vertical lift, reduced space requirements and increased capacities.
Hammerhead Crane
A hammerhead crane is another design that is most often associated with a tower crane. In this case, a long horizontal jib is attached to a vertical tower. One end of the jib acts as a counterweight and the other end of the jib extends horizontally over the worksite. On the hammerhead crane, there is a trolley. This trolley has the lifting cable and travels along the length of the jib. The tower crane is capable of operating anywhere within the jib's radius.
Self-Erecting Tower Cranes
A self-erecting crane is capable of completely assembling itself at the jobsite without any help from another crane. This provides a huge benefit in setup time and really saves time in equipment costs too. Self-erecting cranes are usually remote-controlled from the ground, even though there are several models which have an operator cab built onto the jib.
The self-erecting crane is usually freestanding to allow them the opportunity to be moved around. There are several models that have a telescoping tower which allows the crane to work at multiple heights without the need to reconfigure the tower.
Luffing Jib Tower Crane
Often, within urban work environments, there is not enough clearance or space for the jib to freely rotate without being blocked by existing buildings. A luffing jib tower crane is great for such tight spaces. Nearly all tower cranes have a fixed horizontal jib. The operator can lower or raise a luffing jib in order to allow the crane to swing in a reduced radius.